Yesterday Donald Trump was at a rally in Florida and amid his usual stream of consciousness that serves as his stump speech he let loose on the GOP:
Hailing his campaign as a movement during his rally in Sanford, Florida, Trump told supporters this would be the last chance they have.
“Four years, it’s over. It’s over,” he said. “In four years, you don’t have a chance.”
Trump was seemingly sending a message to people like House Speaker Paul Ryan, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and vanquished GOP primary rivals Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, household names considered likely to challenge a President Clinton for the White House in 2020.
“All these characters, they wanna run in four years,” Trump said. “They can forget it. They’re wasting their time. You don’t have even a little bit of a chance. This is it, and we’re really close.”
Trump suggested in an interview last week that Ryan in particular may be rooting for his downfall, surmising that the Republican House leader abandoned Trump’s campaign because he either wants to run in 2020 or doesn’t know how to win.
On Tuesday, the Republican presidential nominee called on the entire Republican Party to coalesce behind his candidacy, a sign of how fractured the party is given that its nominee is still pleading for its leaders to back him just weeks out from Election Day.
“Republicans have to finally get smart and come together. This is our last chance,” he declared. “This is bigger than me or any of us. It’s about our country. This is about ending Obamacare. This is about the Supreme Court. This is about rebuilding our military and taking care of our vets, strengthening our borders and keeping our companies and jobs from leaving our beloved country. This is about restoring the rule of law, saving our Constitution and keeping radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.”
This is simply Trumpism of the worst kind. It is equal parts megalomania and flimflam. Trump may leading a movement but it is a movement decent people don’t want to be part of. Trump hasn’t been blown out of this race solely because he’s running against a demented kleptocratic harpy who is loathed by virtually everyone. Trump’s voters are much more anti-Hillary than they are pro-Trump and the people who have glommed onto Trump as their Cheeto Jesus tend to be a coalition of the credulous and the worst elements of American political life.
While I agree with Trump on the challenges facing the nation, anyone who thinks Trump either cares about those issues or is capable of running the government more competently than he’s run any of his numerous enterprises is simply delusional.
The idea that Trump is our last chance for anything other than self-immolation is certifiably bizarre. Unless Hillary Clinton kicks the bucket in office and we are facing a relatively human Tim Kaine, 2020 looks like the best chance any party has had to upset an incumbent president since 1980. All that we need is a moderately sane candidate with the barest modicum of humanity and decency. Something we are lacking today.
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